A More Perfect Tournament: Matthew Yglesias

March 27, 2008

Of course March Madness is great.
"The best spectacle in sport." "Three weeks without equal." Blah blah blah. Not
content to leave well enough alone, we want to know if it can be
better.We're in search of a more perfect
tournament. So, we asked a few friends of the magazine if they had any ideas for
improving the NCAAs. Here's what Matthew Yglesias, blogger and associate editor for
The Atlantic, thinks we should
do.

Whenever I debate the "merits" of
college basketball with a fan, it becomes clear that I'm missing the point. I
want to see quality basketball played by quality basketball players. For that,
the NCAA tournament is too far off to even bother trying to improve. But what
the fans like is the "madness"--so many teams! so many games! anything can
happen! What's needed, clearly, is more
madness and expansion to a 128 team pool. Yes, it will further
diminish the talent pool, but that's the
point. To prevent things from taking too long, the new, supercharged
first round will consist of 25 minute games, which heightens the odds of the
much-vaunted upsets. And, yes, that means that simple bad luck could wind up
with a good (by college basketball standards) team getting knocked off by
radically inferior competition, but that's
what makes it so exciting.

To further spice things up, not
all of the 64 additional teams should be actual college basketball teams. Why
not give the previous season's WNBA champions a shot at the big dance? And how
about the two high school all-star teams put together for the McDonald's All-American Game.
And how about a foreign element? FIBA Europe organizes an Under-20 tournament
for European national teams, let's bring some of those on board. Yes, it
wouldn't make much sense, but it's the madness that makes it
work.